मेरा आजीवन कारावास / माझी जन्मठेप (स्वातंत्र्यवीर सावरकर - काले पानी का ऐतिहासिक संस्मरण)

CHAPTER 1 The Goal at Dongri, Bombay “ You are sentenced to fifty years transportation. The International Tribunal at Hague has given judgment that England cannot be constrained to hand you over to France”, said Mr. X to me. “ Well then, I had never depended on any hopes from that quarter. But can I have a copy of judgment to look at?” “That does not rest with me, though I will try my very best for you. Yet the fortitude you have shown in hearing the news that has wrung the heart of a stranger like me, does not make me think that you will wait for any help from an outsider like me,” said my interlocutor almost overwhelmed with feeling. “ Do you really believe that this news or any other news like this does not terrify me? But as I am determined to face this danger and have courted it deliberately, I have now grown impervious to it. Had you have been in the same plight, you would have proved as resolute as myself. For every one can crush such experiences on the threshold of his strong mind. All the same, I am grateful to you, indeed, for your help and sympathy.” Just then I heard some one coming. The gentleman instantly left my room and went his way in the opposite direction. I withdrew a few steps in my cell and kept standing. The word ‘fifty’ kept on ringing in my ears. In a moment those, whose footsteps I had heard coming near my cell, appeared on the scene. The Officer opened the door and his attendant served me my meal. Till the decision of the Hague Tribunal, I was not treated as a prisoner either in food or clothing. Today I had my usual meal. Perhaps the goaler had not yet received the order of the Court. I finished my food but did not that day touch the nice things in it. The Officer questioned me about it- “ Why, why, Sir, have you not touched these things? Why don’t you dine as usual?”